Finding your P’s and Q’s in Revit

Ok. So this title is a bit cryptic, this blog is really about importing Symbols into Text, Dimensions, Schedules, Labels, and finally Find and Replace tools in Revit.

For over 20 years Windows has had a built in program called ‘Character Map’ this will display a dialogue box showing all those special characters you have been yearning for. Here you will be able select, copy to Clipboard and Paste your desired characters into Revit.

The easiest way to find the Character Map program is to search for it, select the Windows ‘Start’ button, type in your search criteria, in this case ‘character map’ or even ‘ch’ and Character Map will appear in the results. Simple!

Now you have the Character Map dialogue open, choose your desired Font (here I’ve selected ‘Arial’ – always a good choice) hold down the pick button on your mouse and as you move your mouse, each character will be magnified, when you’ve found the one you want, double click it, at this point you have selected the character. Pick the ‘Copy’ button to copy the character to the Clipboard.

So now we have the character in the Clipboard we’re ready to paste it where it’s required. In this example, let’s paste the diameter symbol into a text note.

As an alternative to using the Character Map Dialogue you might try using a Keystroke combination, as you hover each character a numerical preview of that character will be shown at the bottom right hand corner. All you need to do is combine the 3 digit code with the ‘Alt’ key. So here is how it works, take a note of the 3 digit code, hold down the ‘Alt’ key then enter 216 on the keypad on the right of your keyboard (not the numbers at the top of the main keyboard) like magic the ‘Ø’ symbol appears.

This procedure will work wherever text is entered, typically Dimensions, Schedules, Labels and Find and Replace.